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After hearing the great news that Scottish Enterprise will be supporting the next stage of the project, QED Naval is making good progress in producing the Subhub tank testing, validation model!

This 1/67th scale model of the commercial 1MW version of the Subhub will simulate 3 turbines in operation on the seabed. The aim of this first model is to validate the CFD calculations and design process used in the development of the Subhub and explore the levels of extreme load from the combination of waves and tidal currents. This model is rated at 2.5m/s full scale equivalent, using a perforated disk to simulate the drag loads from a generic 20m turbine.

Subhub hull frames used to form the partial duct shape.

Subhub gets a new skin.

QED Naval supported by the Energy Technology Partnership (ETP) will be using the world class Flowave test tank facility, officially opened for business last week (5th June) at Edinburgh University.

It is a pleasure to announce that QED Naval have been awarded Scottish Enterprise, SMART R & D grant to support the ongoing development of the Subhub project.

This project aims to complete the validation, build and test of a large scale prototype of the Subhub. The overall goal is to demonstrate a large reduction in the cost of deployment of tidal turbines and validate the performance claims that show large gains in power output when compared with a typical tower installation.

The Subhub tidal foundation platform has been selected by Scottish Enterprise, TSB and the Carbon Trust to submit a full application for WATERS 3 funding by the end of May. The 3rd stage of this funding program from Scottish Enterprise will invest up to £6 million. It has already invested £14.8 million in the first two stages benefiting projects such as, OceanFlow’s, EvoPod,

The WATERS 3 application will be submitted by QED Naval, marine renewable energy consultancy, and will involve operational testing of large scale models of the Subhub in tanks, sheltered coastal waters and then offshore open water, tidal conditions. This funding is design to take the Subhub through the demonstration stages looking at more of the practical issues associated with the deployment of community scale tidal turbines including planning and consents. With this support we envisage will be deployed in community scale projects by early 2017.

The target market for the Subhub is large commercial scale turbines (1MW turbines), which typically weigh 150 tons, with controllable pitch rotors such as Andritz Hydro Hammerfests HS1000 and Voith Hydro’s turbines. It is most suited to shallow water installations in less than 50m of water where its hull fairing works best to optimise the output from the tidal turbines.

We recently re-submitted our application for Scottish Enterprise, SMART R&D funds to support approximately £470k of the £1.75m project costs of Subhub demonstration phase. We hope to find out in the coming weeks whether our application is successful.

This funding would support the next 2 years worth of development on the Subhub tidal platform where the major milestones include:

Tank testing to validate the prototype design and assess the extreme loading events that we could expect during the offshore tidal testing;

Conformation of the Subhub’s performance aspects regarding the large increases in power output using a demonstration turbine;

Completion of the detailed design of the large scale prototype and production outputs;

The completion of this demonstration phase will pave the way for community scale projects of up to 1MW using 7 Subhub units that provide the electrical conditioning and transmission equipment to daisy chain 20 x 50kW devices together.

Subhub is aimed at the larger commercial scale devices of 1MW and above because that is where it stands to show its greatest benefits since Subhub replaces the large, specialist vessels that are typically used to install these devices. This is just one of the many features on Subhub that are required to provide a step change in the costs of deployment that the industry needs in order to become more commercial viable.

This is an exciting prospect offering the opportunity to validate the Subhub prototype design and assess the extreme loads from the combination of both waves and tidal streams. FloWave TT is one of the few facilities in the world that can replicate many different sites around the world including the Bay of Fundy where they have the fastest tidal streams in the world.

In support of the next stage of development of the Subhub foundation platform, Scottish Enterprise have returned a due diligence report on the application for SMART R & D funding. This will support validation, detailed design and production of a prototype vessel and testing offshore.